With the advent and steady growth of electronic mail and electronic commerce, traditional mail, that is, the physical mail stream, will increasingly be utilized for sending and receiving packages. In an effort to lower operating costs and increase value for their customer base, many high volume delivery users prepare packages and other items with automated equipment and presort and label the items prior to placement of the items into the item delivery system. Delivery system users realize a cost savings by correcting addresses, completing addresses, and verifying addresses, for example, prior to placing items into the delivery system.
Therefore, there is a need for delivery system operators, such as the United States Postal Service (USPS) and other organizations to efficiently provide address matching. More specifically, delivery system operators desire to efficiently provide corrected addresses, completed addresses, and validity verification of addresses. This is because in an increasingly competitive environment, it is essential for a delivery system operator to reduce costs and exceed the expectations of those who receive a service.
One solution to the address matching problem is for the delivery system operator or the delivery system user to utilize the ZIP plus 4 (ZIP+4) system. The ZIP+4 system is a product of the USPS that came out of the USPS Address Matching System (AMS) database. The ZIP+4 records, of which there are approximately 38 million, contain only address ranges, not specific addresses to a particular delivery point. For example, the database contains the address range, 100–198 Main Street associated with a unique ZIP+4 code.
Great inefficiencies are created in utilizing the ZIP+4 system because, for example, one address within a particular range may or may not exist. Thus with the ZIP+4 system, correct addresses of actual delivery points are not available. Accordingly, efficiently providing item attribute verification remains an elusive goal. Thus, there remains a need for efficiently providing address matching in an item delivery system. In addition, there remains a need for efficiently providing corrected addresses, completed addresses, and validity verification of addresses in the item delivery system.